Thursday, 21 May 2009

Born in Marina de Massa 1901 and moved to Turin at the age of 10. Studied under Felice Casorati and produced the majority of her works in the 1920's and 30's, including an important series of portraits and figure studies. She exhibited for the first time in 1921 alongside Casorati and Silvio Avondo and showed her work regularly in the following decades (Venice Biennial 1928, 1930, 1932, Quadriennale d’Arte Nazionale di Roma 1931, 1935.) She had major shows at Galleria Milano (1929, 1931) and Galleria Valle in Genova (1930.)

Marchesini married the painter Ugo Malvano in 1930 and worked closely with him in the following years, moving away from the teachings of Casorati. She painted many works featuring her family, especially her father, at this time. During the political upheaval of the late 1930's in Italy, especially the new racial policies which affected her husband, Marchesini was forced to relocate to the Turinese hills. Here, removed from the political and artistic circles she and her husband had enjoyed, she worked mainly on small sketches and poster design.

"Self Portrait with irises" 1931

Her work after the Second World War is characterised by a more expressive handling of paint and heightened dramatic tension in her figure scenes, and again she returned to the theme of family. In 1946 she won a medal at the Venice Biennial and won the grand prize for figurative work at the Biennale d’Arte Sacra di Novara in 1948. Her work was shown at the same competition in 1951 and in 1954.

Marchesini died in Torino in 1953 and her work was largely forgotten until the late 1970's. There have been sporadic showings of her works in Italy since then, and many of her paintings have appeared in public collections. In 1979 twenty of her works were acquired by the Gallery of Modern Art in Turin. Most recently a selection of her works were shown alongside the works of her husband at Villa Valero, near Torino, in January 2009.

Thursday, 14 May 2009

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